


Untitled Ficlet: Gaila on December 25.

by Rubynye



Category: Star Trek XI
Genre: Christmas, Gen, Ocean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-18
Updated: 2010-02-18
Packaged: 2017-10-07 08:50:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/63459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rubynye/pseuds/Rubynye





	Untitled Ficlet: Gaila on December 25.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [igrockspock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/igrockspock/gifts).



On 2257.359, Gaila goes down to the Pacific Ocean.

Campus has emptied out for the Winter Break; Nyota among others have told her that less than half of Terrans 'really' celebrate Christmas, but seemingly everyone takes the opportunity of a break with few or no responsibilities, so even the non-Terrans have gone to visit family or meaningful places. San Francisco has always been within the cultural sphere where Christmas is widespread, so its populace is off work to celebrate, the only places open are automated or hospitals.

So Gaila puts on an undress uniform with trousers, fills the pockets of her long coat with portable food and sweets, buys a large bottle of water from a vending machine and charts a path via shuttles and streetcars, out of the city proper to another side of the Bay, a rocky beach overlooking the shifting gray water.

Campus feels a little hollow without most of the students and instructors, the few left rattling around like seeds in a shaken gourd, but it's a temporary emptiness, so Gaila doesn't mind. She'll graduate this year, and head out on a crowded starship after that; while on previous holidays she went to friends' homes, this year she's content to spend her break working on her Simulator Programming project and just... breathing.

As she does on the beach, salty air and uninhabited, unpaved land to all sides of her, the ocean extending before her. Jim talked one time about the sea being endless like space; it isn't quite, because it has the sky on top, but it still looks infinite. Better yet, it sounds infinite rather than silent, waves crashing endlessly as they did before Terrans built this city, any of their cities, before even when Orions or anyone built cities, as far as she knows.

Gaila takes a piece of chocolate from her pocket, unwrapping it slowly like undressing someone she's taking to bed, and settles down with the endlessness of the sea.


End file.
